1. Technical Field
This device relates to stretch wrapping devices that dispense and stretch a wide band of stretchable plastic film around a package confining the material within to a unitized package for ease of transport and handling. Basiloid containers are defined as multiple segment strips of package material positioned on the outer peripheral edges, top and bottom of the material to be shipped. In this packaging system, bands of continuous stretch plastic film are wrapped around the package by rotation of the load while the film is dispensed from a central point.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior Art devices of this type rely on a variety of rope forming devices, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,255,918, 4,432,185 and 4,563,863.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,918 a collapseable web apparatus is disclosed having a web reduction guide that engages a fixed cam rotating the guide so that the width of the wrapping material can be varied.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,185 discloses a pallet wrapper which has a rope forming arm thereon. At the desired point in the operation the roping arm is engaged against the web drawing same into a rope configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,863 shows a stretch wrapping machine having a gathering apparatus that engages the web forming a rope at the end of the wrapping cycle. No specific disclosure of the roping mechanism is presented.